Rants on Cycling and on Life:
Photos of people and bicycles that pass in front of my camera

6.07.2006

getting ready for big bear

getting ready for big bearas most things in life this weekend really snuck up on meso... here I am getting ready for big bear

this morning before work I took a few minutes to fix my single speedhad not ridden the surly karate monkey since the 12 hours of lodi farmsthere was an issue with the chain being too short after the power link snapped free on my second to last lapthings were too tight to ride... worked in a pinch to get me through the race... but was so tight it felt like a fixed gearat first there was hesitation that I lacked a replacement chain turns out I had a replacement chainthen after that it was just slackingso this morning when the babysitter showed up a few minutes early I snuck into the basement while my older son slept and my younger son played with his baby sitter's grand daughter

there was not much to doafter all it is a single speedwhat is their really to doI replaced the chain and checked the wheels spinning through the brakesa few turns of the pads on the disc in the fronta few turns of athe adijustment screws on the v-brakes in the backthen onto the bike for a spin to work and then later after workbefore leaving work I raised the saddle a tadthe post work ride involved a quick sample of some urban dirtthe bike seemed finethe bike seemed fine the bike seemed fine especially since the single speed is a back up bike for this weekend's 24 hour relay event

the geared bike was tunned in the eveningreally just needed to be cleaned and lubednot much needed to be touchedspaced on the Pedros bike specific degreaser and used the old stand by, Simple Greenwill ride it into work tomorrow for a test of how things are workingfeeling confident that things are as they should behave not ridden the geared surly karate monkey since I rode out to Cabin John and back the other dayrode out on the road rather than the canal.... a good loop but not the serious dirt capitol endurance loopactually the last ride was at Gambrileither way... the bike worked thenthe bike should work now

both bikes have some noise issues....the thudbuster seat posts on each bike are squeakingsounds like I am being swarmed by a thousand hungry micewell.... I am used to the sound of swarming hungry miceso I am not worried about itbut this will certainly be aggravating to the racers around me this weekendespecially the flat bar roadies

before I tunned the bike I had made a quick trip to an area box store strip mall to gather some random supplies

there was no list... just some random supplieshad been hanging with the boys in some pre-bedtime activitieslisa subbed in for the the final settling after I let the boys blow some steam by running wild

the box store mall required a trip out of the cityonce across the river there are multiple box store optionsunsure what I was buying the car made more sense than the bikeas the backpack would not carry as much as I may impulsively buya power inverter for the element and the aerobed for this weekend of camping was top priority on my mental listI felt confident that if one store did not have everything I needed than the next store down the line would suit my needs

I meandered gathering various goodstempted by this tempted by thattempted by everythingthe parting words from my wife echoed in my ears"don't go crazy"at costco the other day I think I may have gone a little crazycostco can do that to me if I am not carefulthe walkie talkies may be vitalwhile some of that other stuff ... the diapers the toilet paper and such... that stuff is over the top

as a father of two it is important to be concious of spendingactually as an anybody being concious of spending is a good idearight now we as a family are trying to be more concious of our spendingwe need to be more concious of our spendingso I let those words go right on my listright on my mental list....in parenthesis above my priority one... a power converter

knowing my weakness I tried to avoid socks and underwearsometimes I think I have too many pairs of socks and too many pairs of underwearso I moved past and tried to focus on priority one before my mental list got scrambledthere is always the chance that my mental list will get erasedat times my good intentions while shopping turn into a classic Jack and the Bean Stalk experiencewell... not so much a giant and some gold.... but coming home with magic beansso... on my way to the power converter I slowed for tentsnot for tentsbut more for car camping pop up screen types of things

I looked at the modelsI looked at the pricesI looked at the stocked shelvesthen I let the words echo in my head.... "don't go crazy"

I picked up on bag holding the tarp with postsI looked at the price of eachmeasured 25 bucks versus a hundred bucksthe words remained in my head"don't go crazy"I nearly walked away with nothingthen the thought of enhancing my kids experience while camping this weekend made me thing that a hundred bucks rather than 25 made perfect sense

so I loaded up with a hundred dollar screened in tent type of thingfrom the camping area I moved to the auto areathere was no passage of time before I found the power invertersthere were choices!I knew nothing of the needs I knew nothing of the choicesI knew I should have called Redlack about thisRedlack knows about this sort of stuffhe had a microwave running off his car at Lodi Farms

after some enie menie minie mo.... I made my selectionfrom the power inverter I was in the lawn and garden areatemptation was running highthe grabbing of the screened in travel porch had me weak to temptationtiki lamps or citronelle candles?what about that picnic table?would I need either?would I need it all?what about enhancing the kids experience?there were some inexpensive long and tall citronelle tiki candles one shot disposablethat should do the trick

fought the impulse to buy any dvds that I may not ever find the time to watchgrabbed some febreeze grabbed two types of febreezegrabbed some gatorade and some other serious junk foodthen onto the cashier with the shortest lineI had moved through the store with the speed and effieciency of a cheap hundred dollar game show from the seventies

my stuff was rung upmy card was runmy cart was packed and I was headed to the doorthen I thought of the cost and the estimate in my headI had wanted to stay below two hundredwith the fifty dollar power converter along with the hundred dollar tent thing left that hope as highly unlikely

after some friendly small talk and the loading of my cart I started to exit the storeas I pushed the cart I scanned the receipt for my final talleyhow could my bill be around one fifty?the tent did not get rung up

now I am not a bad manbut I walkedtried to keep my smile smallbut I walkedno rationalizationjust kept walkingfelt like the ATM machine had just given me an extra twenty and I did not feel like I needed to stand in line to talk to the branch managersure as a parent I need to lead by example...

but I am humanflawed simply flawed

let me finish this drink and get some sleepit is late

I told my wife about the tent and the final billshe got a laugh and told me she would not tellI asked her not to tell deanshe laughed even harderas a parent I need to be sure that I set a good example for my children

yet I still do not think I need to call the branch manager about this one

more rationalization goes rambling through my headhonestlyI think I will enjoy this tent more this waychances are I will grin each time I use it

I applaud your honesty. I think 99% would walk away just like you did. Maybe not if you noticed the error at the time the total was read aloud, but certainly after the transaction and while on your way out. I doubt those that have been to Costco before would ever consider wading back through the chaos only to stand in another line to correct Costco's screw up. Don't forget that they made the mistake and that the correction of that mistake costs you in the form of time. I don't think that's a rationalization. It's the risk that a business has when they develop an imperfect system for checking out and returning their products. This is not a theft...not even deception.

Enjoy the tent. Someone could lose their job for your $20 gain. Get a job that allows you to drop a $30 on the shoppers desk and yell...charge me for the tent and keep the rest for lunch! Just keep your high moral ground speeches on your blog to a minimum!

Who ever this is that keeps blasting bikers should stay off this blog! We all know that bikers are the purest in morals! We always break at stop signs and wait form lights just like cars. We just never grew up and are still riding stupid two wheeled junk piles. We normally also skate and leave our families for whole weekends for stupuid races that mean nothing! We are with you theif!

yes...drinking my coffee and getting ready for big bearstill have not packedwell... still have not finished packingbut last night sleeping seemed as important as anythingnow coffee and blogging seem just as important

flats and broken chains?I already experienced both of thosea flat in my first race of the seasona broken chain in the next race...karma?chance?just another day on the bike?

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